IT’S YEARS LIKE THIS THAT OSU
BRINGS HOME THE BLING
It was about this time last year that I contemplated typing a cautionary tale about national championship expectations in Buckeye Nation. Yes, I know, they exist most every year for those of us who see through Scarlet and Gray glasses. Ohio State football has had a pretty consistent thread of excellence through its history, and it speaks volumes to the coaching ability of Jim Tressel that even the most rational of Buckeye fans can’t completely discount 2007 ending up as another dream season.
But the cold, hard facts are these- Last year was the seventh time in OSU annals that the football team was perched atop the AP preseason poll (1958, 1962, 1969, 1970, 1980, 1998 and 2006), only to see someone else make off with the championship hardware. OK, the 1970 team was awarded a share of the crown by the National Football Foundation, but that was before the 27-17 loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl, which sent the Bucks plummeting to a #5 finish in the AP. The NFF, who had split the ’70 championship between Ohio State and Texas (who then proceeded to lose the Cotton Bowl to Notre Dame), promptly decided to wait until AFTER the bowl games the next year before declaring someone king.
But for crying out loud, if the NFF’s rule of passing out a #1 trophy before the bowl games had been in effect last year, OSU would have walked off with it and no one would have uttered a peep. For 12 games and one kickoff return, there wasn’t much question who the best team in the land was in 2006. Last August, had I rolled out a column warning everyone about what happens to preseason #1-rated Buckeye teams, perhaps some of you would have kept it in mind. But you would have probably ended up like me, scoffing at the notion of the Buckeyes losing after going into Austin and Iowa City and manhandling the ‘Horns and Hawks. I decided not to write anything that might jinx the team and it looked like a dandy decision up until Glendale. So I’ll save that tale of dire warning for the next time that the Buckeyes start the season in the “poll” position. In its place, I’ll give the football forecast a twist. I’m not going to sit here and point-blank predict that Jim Tressel will be holding the crystal football aloft in New Orleans next January. But history has proven that the four AP national title teams and one UPI champ in Ohio State football lore have basically come out of nowhere. As the old saying goes, “When you least expect it…”
After Francis Schmidt had flamed out with a 40-0 loss to Michigan in his final game as coach in 1940, Ohio State brought Paul Brown on board straight out of Massillon High School, where he had rolled up an amazing 58-1-1 mark in his last seven seasons. Brown alleviated any concern about a high school coach taking over the Buckeye football factory by going 6-1-1 in his rookie campaign of 1941. A 33-0 thumping of USC out in L.A. put the team on the map while their only league defeat was a 14-7 heartbreaker to a Northwestern squad led by Paul Brown’s future Cleveland quarterback Otto Graham. OSU was without the services of fullback Jack Graf against the Wildcats, and it showed. Graf would go on to win the Silver Football award as the Big Ten’s MVP, despite the fact he made no All-American teams or even 1st-team All-Big Ten.
As 1942 dawned, Brown was faced with the daunting task of replacing his entire ’41 backfield of Graf, Dick Fisher, Jack Hallabrin and Tom Kinkade. Even with only 2 seniors in the starting lineup, by the time the first AP poll was released on October 12th, the 3-0 Buckeyes were perched at #1. (Imagine that- waiting a few weeks before releasing a poll…) The Scarlet and Gray held the top spot until the 17-7 “bad water game” loss up in Wisconsin, and even after beating Pitt the next week, OSU was down at #10 in the AP listings. But in a miraculous finish, Brown’s troops won out, got a ton of help and vaulted to the top spot in the final 1942 poll.
In 1953, Woody Hayes was trying to adjust to new rules that forbid having two platoons (an offensive and defensive team). In a 41-20 loss to Illinois, quarterback John Borton was injured and finished for the season. OSU was plagued by fumble problems (at one point losing 11 fumbles in a three-game stretch) and skidded to a 6-3 finish after being blanked by Michigan 20-0. Woody was on the hot seat and a demanding 1954 schedule seemed certain, in many minds, to put a lid on Hayes’ tenure. Instead, “Hop” Cassady and Co. ran the table to claim the AP crown, although UCLA was named #1 by UPI.
The 1956 Buckeyes were shooting for an unprecedented third straight outright Big Ten championship, but because the school was on probation, there would be no Rose Bowl at season’s end. OSU got off to a 6-1 start, but dropped a 6-0 decision in Iowa City that snapped their 17-game Big Ten winning streak. In fact, the Bucks only scored 6 points total in their 3 losses that year, including a 19-0 defeat at the hands of the Maize and Blue. With the way the offense had struggled in ’56 (one of the wins that year had been a 6-2 decision over Northwestern), and with quarterback Frank Ellwood and legendary lineman Jim Parker departing, 1957 held no prospects of greatness. And when TCU came to Columbus for the opener and knocked off the Buckeyes 18-14, fans were beyond nervous. But OSU got it together and ran off 8 straight wins, and in a switch from ’54, this time UPI voted the Bucks #1 while the AP went with undefeated Auburn. UPI must have truly been impressed because Auburn gave up only 28 points the entire season while pitching 5 shutouts.
Coming off a losing season in 1959, the 1960 team bounced back from a loss to Purdue to knock off 11th-ranked Wisconsin and 10th-ranked Michigan State in consecutive weeks to get back into the Big Ten race. But in yet another big showdown at Kinnick Stadium, #5 Iowa steamrolled the third-ranked Buckeyes 35-12 in Hawkeye coach Forest Evashevski’s last home game. Hayes’ squad rebounded to shutout Michigan 7-0 in what would be the first of four straight wins over the Wolverines, but with quarterback Tom Matte departing, Woody had to count on several sophomores in 1961 since Matte’s running ability had accounted for a major chunk of the offense. But when those sophomores include Paul Warfield and Matt Snell, life gets a lot easier. TCU once again stained the slate by tying OSU 7-7 in the opener, but the Scarlet and Gray rolled through the next eight opponents to win the Big Ten. The controversial decision by the Ohio State Faculty Council to deny the football team the Rose Bowl trip may have cost the Buckeyes a shot at capturing one of the major wire service polls. Unbeaten Alabama had two opportunities to state their case after OSU’s season ended, and they took care of business by blanking Auburn 34-0 and edging Arkansas 10-3 in the Sugar Bowl.
Although ‘Bama won the AP and UPI titles, it wasn’t consensus as the Football Writers’ Association crowned Ohio State as champion. The no-Rose Bowl vote hampered recruiting throughout the next several years for Woody Hayes, and by 1967 the vultures were swirling once again. Woody had suffered a second losing season in ’66 at 4-5, and the next season got off to a painful start with a loss to Arizona. When second-ranked Purdue visited Ohio Stadium and blasted the Bucks 41-6 two weeks later, the hooting around Columbus became deafening. Illinois came from behind in the next home game for a 17-13 victory, which, when taking into account the 17-3 loss to Michigan to finish the ’66 campaign, marked the first (and to date only) time in Ohio Stadium history that the Buckeyes had lost four straight in the Horseshoe. But from that dark point, Ohio State launched a 22-game winning streak, which would save Hayes’ job after the ’67 season, encompass the vintage 1968 title run and carry the team to the brink of another crown in 1969 until Bo pulled the plug.
Jim Tressel’s initial campaign in 2001 was a real roller coaster. The offense was non-existent in a 13-6 loss to UCLA on the West Coast, but an emotional 38-20 night win over Northwestern in the first home game after the 9/11 tragedies seemed to right the ship. But then OSU, still infused with the Cooper era “play not to lose” mentality, coughed up two games to Wisconsin and Penn State where they held double-digit leads. Despite all of this, two November wins had the Bucks still in contention until Illinois, enjoying a resurgent season, whacked OSU in the home finale as Craig Krenzel and Scott McMullen were forced to play with a day’s notice thanks to Steve Bellisari. Jonathan Wells’ spirited running and Krenzel’s masterful guidance led to a signature win in Ann Arbor to close out the regular season, a win which helped soothe a bitter bowl loss to South Carolina.
Buckeye Nation felt there would be improvement in 2002, but Krenzel was still unproven, Wells was graduating, and the kicking game and secondary were a bit unsettled. But gradually the pieces fell in place- Michael Doss announced he would return for his senior year, Maurice Clarett turned the college football world on its ear, and Ohio State played out the quintessential “dream” season in school annals with a dramatic 14-0 title run.
So don’t be fooled by those pre-season #1 rankings should Ohio State be in that position in the future. It’s always an honor to have that label, but OSU football history has proven it to be a curse for the Scarlet and Gray. The time to dream national championship dreams is when you least expect it, and the 2007 season just might fill the bill. The games that will make or break this season won’t roll around until early October, so the offense will have time to gain its identity. And if the defense improves in any measurable amount from their overall performance of last year, they’ll be one stubborn bunch. Any title contender in any sport needs good health and a big ol’ dose of luck. The early part of the schedule is nothing much to get excited about on paper right now, but the home stretch could make it all worthwhile. This team will write its own history, but time and change have surely shown that this is the kind of season that Buckeye Nation shouldn’t give up on its crystal football dreams.
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Editorial: 2007 National Contenders?
By Joe-S-U
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August 26th, 2007
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